A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
by htffan951
Summary: Every card has a story behind it waiting to be told. Either old or new, each and every one of them tells a story of someone or something, and its part of our job to figure out what those stories are. This is what I think. Series of one shots.
1. Chapter 1

**Devour in Shadow**

It was a dark and chilling night on the metallic plane named Mirrodin. Walking around in the green ooze know as the swamplands was a young male elf, and his cyborg wolf stead. As the Wolf trotted through the misty marsh, the elf looked down at his mount. It was very similar to the other Wolves that can be found in his home village. A plane brown pelt, with several golden tubes running in and out of its body around its chest, back, and front paws and legs. The elf himself wore a simple bronze armor that covered his lower legs, lower arms, chest, and shoulders. At his side was a massive blade that was nearly half his size.

The two of them were out looking for some game to hunt, and feast upon the following day along with several others in his tribe earlier that day. This was the elfs first time out hunting, and he was very excited to finally gather food for his tribe. That is until a light fog came rolling in and he quickly lost track of his fellow elfs.

However this did not worry the elf at all, as he knew that his brethren were as tough as nails, so he continued to venture on, just him and his wolf mount. However he quickly realized his mistake in choice when he found himself in the deadly swamps.

His mother use to tell him as a young child bed time stories of the horrors that lived in the swamps. From the dreaded undead, whom were called Nims, the flesh eating vermin, and the ferocious beasts that swam in the murky green waters. Even the unholy humans and there dark magic were considered threats to all living beings, both big and small.

The elf's ear twitched as he heard a twig snap close by and he quickly drew his sword from his waist. Holding it tightly with bold hands, he waited for anything to jump out of the decried boshes. Even the wolf remained motionless as it waited for its master to signal it to move on.

And there they waited, and waited, and waited. Slowly the elf lowered his guard and began to sheath his sword. As he did he looked towards the ground and saw that the wolf he was riding had a paw lifted up into the air, below it a broken twig, snapped into.

The elfs pale green face lit up with anger, nearly turning red in the process. He nearly yelled at the wolf below him, though held himself back not wanting to attract any real danger that lurked in the swamp. Instead the elf just kicked the wolf, signaling it to continue walking.

'_Of course this had to happen to me_' thought the elf '_Out of all of the new hunters, I had to be the one who got lost. Isnt that just fantastic,_'

The elf continued to mumble to himself when suddenly the wolf stopped moving. The elf kicked it in the side once more to get it to move. '_Come on you damn dog, I want to get out of here sooner rather then latter._' But still the wolf did not move. '_Worthless mutt,_'

That was when the elf noticed something in the distance as well. A light golden shimmer sparkled through the foggy swamp. The elf heard his stead growl as the light grew brighter.

Taking this as a sign, the elf drew his sword once more incase this was some sort of trick. As the light grew closer and closer, the area around them began to lose its dull look. Even the water started to lose the green tint to it as the object or being coming towards them illuminated the murky waters.

That is when he saw it. It was a golden snake like creature that seemed to glide above the water. The elf lowered his guard a little as he could find no head attached to the living organism before him. What he did notice however was how its body twisted and shifted its body with little difficulty, as if it did not have an actual body to it and was some spectral being coming to him from beyond the grave.

"Hello?" the elf called to the light hoping that if it was some spirit he may ask for directions back to his tribe in the forest. But the golden being did not respond, nor did it make any indications that it even heard him. It just kept on swiveling and twisting above the water.

The elf began to grow nervous as the light came even closer to him, and he saw that the wolf was bearing his teeth and growling once more at the creature. The elf wasn't sure what he should do. He had never heard of such a monster or being like this. Maybe it was just some magic trickery cast by a local human.

The elf huffed in an act of aggression. "I am an elf of the Tel-Jilad tribe, and I shall not be deterred by your sorcery," the elf shouted at the top of his lungs, showing anyone nearby that he was not afraid. "Now come out you fiend!"

However no one came out from the mist. There was no human cackling in delight, no hidden monster springing from its hiding place, nor anything new. The golden phantasm continued to slither closer towards the elf and wolf ever so slowly.

Having enough of what ever this thing in the water was, the elf pulled the rains on the wolf telling it to turn around.

Just as he did however the golden being quickly jutted forwards at a break neck pace, quickly extending, and wrapping itself around the wolfs legs, keeping it from moving. The wolf panicked and reared upwards trying to remove the creatures grasp around its leg, though only succeeded in throwing its master off its back.

The elf was left in a daze as his body fell into the shall water. He quickly drew his head above the water's surface gasping for air, not expecting to be thrown off his mount. But what he saw left him horrified, as the golden specter weave its body around the canine. The wolf yipped and wined as it felt the thing around its body devour it. The wolf thrashed and struggled as his master only stared in fear as blood began pouring out of the wolf, only to be consumed as the blood fell upon the golden being.

The golden spirit began to drag the wolf towards a deeper part of the water, growing tired of the beasts constant moving. Then when there was no more ground below the wolf, it only managed to splash around in the water for a few moments before being sucked down into the water below.

The elf knew fully well that he would not be seeing his companion anymore and did not wish to suffer a similar fate. With great haste, the elf lifted his body and wrenched his weapon from the water and ran as fast as his legs would take him into the foggy abyss.

**Well I hope you all enjoyed this little chapter made. As some of you might know this from the description this was a chapter that was based off of the artwork from the card Devour in Shadow. Now I would like to post a new chapter to this story every single Sunday, and I would like your guys help. If there is a card that you want me to try to give a story to then leave it in your review or send me a pm. Here are the only rules I have for the cards.**

**1 No land cards**

**2 No planeswalkers or any card that is already part of the lore/has its own story behind it.**

**3 I wont do any card from the Unhinged or Unglued sets. **

**4 If the card has alternate art tell me which one exactly you want me to make the chapter about.**

**Thank you guys for reading this story and I hope you will enjoy the next one. Take care everone.**


	2. Chapter 2

On the plane of Innistrad, sitting in one of the thousands of graveyards was a young necromancer by the name of Ozwin. As he sat he began pondering over recent events. A few ours ago, he was being trained by a master necromancer, hoping to one day serve the Arch Demon Grisbrand. They were in the same graveyard that Ozwin was mopping in at the moment, as the master tried to teach Ozwin the art of reviving the dead.  
>"Now then boy, show me what you can do. We will start off simple today, just resurrect a mindless undead for me." said the master necromancer.<p>

Ozwin didn't say a word as he channeled the black mana from the surrounding area into his body and out his hands. His palms began to glow a dark black color. Sweet began to drip from Ozwin's brow as the energy in his fists grew stronger and stronger until it felt like he couldn't hold it any longer. He could feel his knuckles burning from the intense intake of mana being poured into them. Spreading his fingers apart as wide as possible he released the black mana that was stored in them upon a tome stone they were standing next to. Ozwin began to pant, tired from the act he committed. His instructor noticed this and began to scribble down notes onto his parchment.

Still tired from what this, Ozwin notice what his instructor was doing and quickly removed any and all traces of tiredness from his body. He turned towards the grave waiting for his zombie to crawl out of its tomb.

Nothing happened. Ozwin sat there confused, wondering why not a single speck of dirt moved. Growing nervous, he looked up at his instructor and saw the displeased look on his face.

"Well?" asked the instructor as he began to lose his patients. However before Ozwin could say anything the ground around the gravestone began to shuffle and shift.

Ozwin gasped in delight, happy to see that he wasn't about to fail his first test.

The ground around the grave began to tremble as something beneath it began to crawl its way up towards the surface. Closer and closer until its finger tips could be seen poking out of the ground.

Looking back at his instructor he noticed a more pleased look on his face. Looking back down at grave he watched in delight as his first zombie continued to climb. Ozwin nearly squealed in joy as a hand finally immerged from the dirt. He felt so proud of himself, as he hoped for this day for so many years, and to see his dream of joining the demon's army to fight against the angels was something he could hardly bare to see.

"Ehem," said the instructor, snapping Ozwin out of his thoughts. Glancing at the experience necromancer Ozwin wondered why he called his attention. The instructor didn't say a word and instead pointed downwards.

Looking down Ozwin saw that the hand from the zombie has emerged from the ground, but the rest of the body stayed inside its tomb, not even slightly moving. The young necromancer look at the hand as it crawled around franticly. He couldn't help but feel ashamed of himself as he used up so much energy in him to just revive a fourth of an appendage.

"Is this really the best you can do?" the older necromancer asked clearly unimpressed.

"N-n-n-no sir," Ozwin stammered growing nervous.

"Good because this is pathetic!" the instructor said as he stomped on the hand, crushing it until it stopped moving. "Now do it again," he said in a more calmer tone.

Ozwin took a deep breath, readying himself for another go. He began to pull the black mana from around him and once again channeled it into his hands. He could feel the energy start to grow but at a much slower rate, which began to worry him, but he shook his head of such thoughts and tried to concentrate.

Pushing himself he focused more and more trying to build up power, but in the end he just couldn't do it and quickly the black mana sizzled out of his finger tips. Ozwin looked back up at the instructor and let out a nervous laugh as he tried to smile and innocent smile.

But the experienced necromancer was not pleased with these results. Rubbing his forehead in annoyance he said "Look kid," he said as insulting as possible. "Why dont you go home and before you hurt yourself," Before Ozwin could say anything back to the instructor, he left.

And so Ozwin found himself were he was now, alone in a grave mad at both himself for failing and the instructor for not giving him another chance. He felt more and more anger swell up inside of him to the point were he wanted to throw something. Looking around he tried to pick up a headstone, only for it to be to heavy for him. He then started throwing small rock but they didn't satisfy his anger.

That was when he began to absorb the black mana around him. He enjoyed the feeling of this dark energy flowing through his body. Like before he sent the mana into his palms and soon after he took the mana and released it into the ground. He wasnt sure why but it felt rather good. He didnt plan on raising any zombie, or casting any fancy spells, he just wanted to have the ground absorb more and more of the black mana.  
>He did this several times, piling black mana into his being before releasing it into the ground and then starting over again. He did it one more time when he started to feel light headed. Collapsing to the ground he felt the world spin through his eyes.<p>

And then soon after it felt like the ground beneath him was shacking. Even when he cleared his head of its dizzyness, Ozwin felt the dirt under him shift, when suddenly the area around him began to rise. Panicking he got up and ran way from the moving earth. Looking back he watched a hand as large as his body came up from the ground, followed by another and then a brown dirty face appeared. Ozwin looked at the creature in amazement, wondering if he created the beast or was it just coincidence. The creature then looked over at Ozwin, showing him a mindless, dumb founded look. Slightly scared by this Ozwin took a step backwards, and as he did the giant monster took a crawled on all fours a little closer.

Ozwin then decided to take his chances and figure out if he summoned this beast. Taking several steps back, he wanted to see if the monster would follow and to his surprise it did. Delight filled Ozwin's soul as he was still rather amazed that he did such a thing. Then an idea came to his head as a deviant smile formed on his face.

The instructor from before was sleeping safely in his bed, waiting for new orders from his higher ups, when he was awoken by the ground shaking. Scrambling to his feet as he fell off his bed, he quickly looked outside his window to see who would dare bother him while he slept. But his anger swiftly dwindled as he saw the young necromancer he was teaching early riding on top of a large creature.

Ozwin looked down upon his old teacher and said with a large smirk across his face, "Is this impressive enough for you?"

**Ok I will admit this was not the greatest one, but I was surprisingly busy this week and didn't have a lot of time to think of something, so I do apologies for that. next week I promise to have something better.**


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